1) For the love of God, stick to your region in matchmaking. You are effectively handicapping yourself by playing with a ping of 200-400 while other players have below 100. In Hawken, every bit of a second counts towards getting that kill or ensuring your survival and making a mistake that could have been avoided if you had a better ping is the second worst feeling in Hawken. The first would be having someone like that on your team.

2) I’m sure this one has been repeated time and time again, Always stay close to your team. It’s the number one rule (So why isn’t this at Number 1? Good question) in Hawken. Your chances of survival are multiplied along with your kill rate. So what’s not to like? A wolf pack of Mechs hunting down lone wolves guarantees experience and victory for your team even if they’re just beginners.

3) Never ever get tunnel vision while playing Hawken, Always be mindful of your surroundings and make use of that fancy HUD the developers blessed us with. Frequent glances at your heat level and radar can help avoid sticky situations. For example, overheat in the midst of a firefight and you’re pretty much toast. Checking your opponents positions through the radar helps you decide your own course of action. Do you fight them head-on or do you run like the fuzzy bunny intelligent player you are? More on that later.

4) RUN’N’GUN! I’ll assume you are a beginner with little to no experience with Hawken. As a newbie, you can’t hope to get your first kill the instant you plop yourself into a match. ” This isn’t CoD! ” as someone pointed out. Your best bet to rack up experience points early on would be to stick close to your team, fire some rounds and a TOW rocket or two at the enemy who’s too focused on something else and then move away. Yes, you might not be able to deal much damage, but chipping away at an enemy’s health while someone else gets the killing blow is enough to net you an assist, which is a pretty sweet thing in itself.

5) No one likes dying, right? Well, tell that to the retards who go 0/6/3 in the first few minutes. One thing Hawken players tend ot forget is to always do your best to survive. There is no shame in retreating from a losing firefight as it denies the enemy team Energy Units (for Siege Mode) and kills (Which is important in DM and TDM). After all, We were given the repair button for a reason. One nifty trick while running away from the enemy is to run towards an ally instead of just dashing around randomly. It’s a pretty nasty move to pull off towards your teammates as they might die but the benefit pays off:

i) Your pursuers are distracted by the new targets, thus improving your chance of survival.
ii) Your team may be able to turn the tables and inflict some casualties on the other team.
iii) You’ll be left with one of the most pleasant feelings after escaping with only 10 HP. Feelsgoodman.jpg

Of course, it wouldn’t be so nasty if your team had Teamspeak and were able to warn each other before pulling this off. But stacked teams have not been implemented yet so beggars can’t be choosers!

One important part to staying alive is to never stay still! Always be on the move whether you’re in a firefight or just idling around, waiting for an opportunity to kill. Staying still presents yourself as an easy target to the enemy and static targets will be focused on. By simply dashing around and using your jump jets (without overdoing it, of course. See point 7) in duels and firefights, your chances of staying alive are dramatically improved.

6) Help that friend in need! This is a team game after all. If you see a mass of red dots converging on an allied Mech, be a bro and help him out. If he’s read this guide like you did, he’s probably running towards you! An offensive iteration of this would be to help your ally pick off a runner. For instance, teammate takes the left turn to chase, you take the right turn to catch the escapee off guard.

7) Now, this is another thing most players forget, conserve your fuel! The deciding factor for most fights (1V1’s and skirmishes) is who can dodge each other’s shots the most, and you can’t do that with an empty fuel tank. If there are no teammates that are in need nor detected enemies to hunt down, just walk instead of hovering and dashing everywhere. This also brings up my next point which is learn to use cover and dash to avoid damage, this can only come through experience as you explore every nook and cranny each map has to offer. It’s pretty sad to see a Mech attempt to dodge a barrage of Hellfire missiles, only to slam into a wall and get hit by the salvo anyway.

8) Given the small field of view and miserable turn rate every mech has. It’s only natural we take advantage of it and flank an opponent’s side and rear every chance you get. You have no idea how annoying it is to be shot at from multiple angles, especially when you’re busy shooting something else. Even a lone Mech who breaks off from the main group to flank the opponents can deal some devastating damage. I should know because I’ve been on both ends. This strategy is especially effective in open maps such as Bazaar (The desert one) and Prosk (The city one). A successful flanker will throw the entire opponent’s team into disarray and net some kills, albeit cheap ones.

9) This one is specific to Assaults, Scouts, and other fast mechs. If you notice enemy Mech with low health breaking off from a skirmish, do your best to finish him off. It’s likely that he ran off to find a safe place to repair, giving you a ripe opportunity to score a kill. Stay away from other enemies while you give chase towards that Mech. The only time this is not applicable is when you are positively sure that you would have died if you attempted to pick off said Mech. How do we make that decision? Good judgement, of course; and “good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.” Thanks, Will Rogers!

10) I’ll give you a hypothetical situation, you’ve just finished dueling another Mech in a 1V1 situation and although you’re badly damaged, you emerge as the victor. Now, the logical thing would be to repair immediately right? WRONG! Always run towards your team or a safe spot after a 1V1 situation. The reason for this is because any competent player would have been alerted to the gunfire / radar and would rush in to help. Having an enemy Bruiser atomize you with rockets while you were holding down the C button is definitely not on your to-do list.

11) Like all team-based games, communication is vital, let your team know what you are doing! Even a short and simple message through teamchat such as “Going S1”, “Get to AA”, “Flanking Bruiser”, “Stick together” and whatnot makes a difference. Back in my Alpha2 and Closed Beta2 days where there were dedicated server listings, people could join any game they wanted, This paved the way for friends and stacked teams with Teamspeak and mics, and I can tell you this; playing against them was a nightmare. How am I supposed to fight a group of Mechs with unparalled coordination while I have a bunch of monkeys on my team!?

In case you didn’t know, press Y to toggle all chat and T to toggle teamchatingame, just don’t abuse it and spam nonsensical things because it’s nice to be nice.